Daniel Striped Tiger

Daniel Striped Tiger is a shy and meek resident of the Neighborhood of Make-Believe. He lives in the clock located near the Platypus Mound on the west side[1] of the Neighborhood opposite the castle.

In his earliest days on the Children's Corner, Daniel was the president of the Tame Tiger Torganization, loved hamburger, and often hosted parties at his clock for seventeen of his closest tiger friends.

Daniel is very soft-spoken, is easily frightened, and tends to be quite a worrywart. He often finds comfort in playing with his truck -- his favorite toy -- and talking with his friend Lady Aberlin. She and Daniel show their affection for one another by rubbing their noses together and saying "ugga mugga." Once worried that he was a mistake, Daniel was reassured of his worth by Lady Aberlin.[2] Daniel is colorblind[3] and also somewhat naive. Bob Dog once convinced him that a plant could grow cans of soup.[4]

Although Daniel does not have a grandfather[5], he does have many friends throughout the Neighborhood of Make-Believe including his imaginary friend, Malcolm Apricot Dinko, and his schoolmates at Someplace Else -- Prince Tuesday and Ana Platypus.

Daniel shares his birthday with Purple Panda[6] who did not have a birthday of his own. He served as the ring bearer in the wedding of Betty Okonak Templeton and James Michael Jones[7], is a founding member of the Neighborhood's Reindeer-Tiger sports team[8], and is known to attend the occasional clock-lover's meeting.[9] Daniel was even able to communicate with Yo-Yo LaBelle -- the visitor from the stars -- when no one else was able to.[10]

Daniel's Name and Background

Daniel Striped Tiger is named after the first general manager of WQED in Pittsburgh -- Dorothy Daniel. In his interview for the Archive of American Television, Fred Rogers describes how Daniel Striped Tiger first came to be:

Before [The Children's Corner] went on the air on April 5 [1954]...Mrs. Daniel gave us a party -- all the people who were going to be on the air -- and she gave favors at the party. My favor was a little tiger puppet and I said to Josie [Carey], "Why don't we just make a slit in the set and I can poke this puppet through. Let's call it Daniel. We'll just use it once." The art department had painted this fanciful set and there happened to be a clock on it. So I just put the little slit in the clock and poked Daniel [through] and said, "Hello, Josie, it's 5:03 and Columbus discovered America in 1492." The people liked him so much...and that's how the puppetry began. We never expected to use puppets on the program.

The Daniel puppet seems to have a great fan following among the children who watch the program. When Daniel offered membership in his Tame Tiger Torganization (T.T.T.) on The Children's Corner, he was soon receiving 750 letters a day. Not long ago a very thoughtful present came for Daniel from a child who watched him often. The child explained in a letter that he had noticed Daniel's clock had no hands, so he was sending Daniel the most useful present he could think of -- a wristwatch.

Operas and Plays

Daniel Striped Tiger's experience with the Neighborhood operas and plays includes the following parts:

Merchandise

Puppet / Costume Variations

The original Children's Corner version of Daniel Striped Tiger puppet had dark horizontal stripes while the version used for the duration of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood had much lighter, less noticeable stripes.